The Slave Coast of West Africa, 1550-1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society (Oxford Studies in African Affairs) [Hardcover]

Robin Law (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 1991 | ISBN-10: 0198202288 | ISBN-13: 978-0198202288

This book studies the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on the "Slave Coast" of West Africa, an area covering modern south-eastern Ghana, Togo, Benin, and south-western Nigeria. This region was one of the most important sources of slaves for the Atlantic slave trade, and its history provides an exceptionally well-documented illustration of the effect of the trade on the indigenous African societies of the Slave Coast. The expansion of the slave exports during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries coincided with a period of political disorder, which ended with the rise of the new kingdom of Dahomey. Dahomey was a more militarized and more politically centralized state than those which preceded it in the region, and its distinctive character reflected the impact of the slave trade. Law examines the events which preceded the rise of Dahomey, the organization of the slave trade and its impact on the domestic economy, and the social and political structures of Dahomey and its predecessors.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A masterly reconstruction of a period and place that might easily have remained obscured....Fundamental scholarship at its best...the book will have a long life."--The Historian

About the Author

Robin Law, Reader in History, University of Stirling.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 28, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198202288
• ISBN-13: 978-0198202288
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,253,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > History > Africa > Benin

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